Search Pages and Results

INF 385E Information Architecture and DesignⅠMin Yao

October 11, 2005

Overview

• Why do we love search

• Locating Search

• Scoping Search

• Query Entry

• Retrieval Results

• Query Refinement

• Finishing Search

Why do we love search?

• Search lets users control their own destiny

• Search is also users' escape hatch when they are stuck in navigation

Locating Search

• “the little box where I can type”

• Top left, middle or right

• Put the search tool in a consistent place

Scoping Search

Query Entry

• Where to enter a query?(Multiple search boxes can be confusing.)

• Is it easy to enter a query? (Boolean operator?)

Query Entry (cont)

• Is the search box long enough to handle common query lengths?

The mean query length is slowly increasing, approaching three terms

Search log analysis

• query builders?(spell-checking, stemming, natural language processing)

Retrieval Results• Elements of Results Page

Retrieval Results (cont)• Which content components to display?

Depend on users’ needs, which components are available

Retrieval Results (cont)• How to organize retrieval results? Sorting: alphabet, chronology Ranking: relevance, popularity, users’/

experts’ ratings, pay-for-placement Vaughan (2004) compared human ranki

ngs with those of Google, AltaVista and Teoma.

Clustering

Retrieval Results (cont)• Zero results?

Query Refinement

• Advanced search, refine search or revise search

• Display the original search, make it easy to edit

• Narrow search results, search within results

• Expand search results

Finishing Search

• Save a group of results

• Print or email a result

• Save a search query (alerts)